'Over 500' Assam Rifles troops are HIV +ve

[Guest guest]

'Over 500' Indian troops have HIV

By Subir Bhaumik BBC News, Calcutta

The Assam Rifles are mostly recruited from the north-east (Photos: Rituraj Borthakur)

More than 500 soldiers belonging to an elite paramilitary force in India are infected with HIV, the chief of the force has said. Seventy troops of the 173-year-old Assam Rifles have died of the infection in the past 10 years, according to Lieutenant General Karan Singh Yadava. Many of the Assam Rifles troops are posted in north-eastern India and are engaged in fighting local insurgencies. India has one of the highest numbers of people with HIV in the world.

Lt Gen Yadava said the force is organising sex education lessons for troops. "We have asked our men to curb the menace (of HIV infections) with full strength," he said. The Assam Rifles are recruited and deployed in the north-east of India - where they help maintain security or quell insurgencies in states such Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. They are posted in areas close to the Burmese border which have some of the highest rates of HIV infection in India. Abuses Analysts say the easy availability of narcotics from Burma - and the local tendency to inject them through the multiple use of syringes - is the main cause for such high prevalence of Aids.

We are giving a lot of importance to creating awareness of safe sex among the troops

Lt Gen Karan Singh Yadava

But they say members of the Assam Rifles mainly get infected through unprotected sex rather than through drugs use. Assam Rifles troops have, in recent years, been accused of forcing local women into having sex with them. In 1987, the force launched Operation Bluebird in the Oinam area of Manipur after Naga separatists looted more than 100 weapons from their camp. Human rights groups in the north-east allege that at that time, a large number of rapes were reported and some pregnant women were even forced to give birth in the open. In 1989, an Assam Rifles patrol was found guilty of gang-raping a number of tribal women in a remote hamlet in the state of Tripura. In 2004, they were accused of raping and killing a girl in Manipur. The US-based Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that some of the guilty troops were being shielded, though the case is still going on. The Assam Rifles was raised 173 years ago as a specialist force by the British during their campaigns against fiercely-independent tribal chiefs in the north-east. Post-colonial India expanded the force to its current strength of 46 battalions - with about 1,000 men in each battalion - as rebel groups proliferated across the troubled north-east.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7624839.stm

[Guest guest]

Dear AIDS INDIA Forum,

Greetings from ANP+

 

Assam Network of Positive People (ANP+) is a network of People Living with

HIV/AIDS working for the betterment of PLHIV in the state of Assam for the past

4 years. It has done a series of advocacy, awareness, support group and positive

speaking programes across the state as well as in the neighboring states. The

main objective of the ANP+ is to provide maximum care and support to PLHIV and

to educate them regarding treatment literacy, adherence and about all other

aspects related to HIV.

 

We would like to highlight you all after reading the article 'Over 500' Indian

troops have HIV by Subir Bhoumik that we from ANP+ with the help of Indian

Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) which a National level network of

PLHIV having 23 state level networks across the country with more than 100

thousand HIV positive members under its shadow have done a series of advocacy

and awareness while the former Director  General Mr. Bhupendra Singh was there.

The main aim of those activities was to aware the troops about the consequences

of high risk behavior and the proper use of condoms while having unprotected

sex. Ms. Winnie Singh was also a part of the same campaign. So, after he left we

have not yet been able to contact any one Assam Riffles as a result the process

of activities have been stopped.

 

The awareness not going to work more, if person not getting proper care and

dignity of his or her life  in work place. Before we do some for them , we need

work  place policy inside the Assam rifals .

We wold request to all make strong work place policy for them fast.

 

Therefore, Dear Lt. Gen K S Yadava, AVSM, SM, VSM (the current DG) sir as a

concern organization of Assam and as a PLHIV network we would like to continue

the same effort under your supervision. We will extend our expertise to you in

terms of educating Jawans to know about HIV/AIDS and how they will protect

themselves from the virus while they are far away from their home.

 

We will be happy to work with you in near future.

 

With Regards

Jahnabi Goswami

Treasurer - Assam Network of Positive People (ANP+)

General Secretary -  Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS (INP+)

Chair Person-  National Women forum of INP+

e-mail: <jahnabig@...>